ज्ञानं कर्म च कर्ता च त्रिधैव गुणभेदतः ।प्रोच्यते गुणसंख्याने यथावच्छृणु तान्यपि ॥
jñānaṃ karma ca kartā ca tridhaiva guṇabhedataḥ |procyate guṇasaṃkhyāne yathāvacchṛṇu tānyapi ||
Knowledge, action, and the doer are declared to be of just three kinds each, according to the differences among the gunas, in the teaching that enumerates the gunas. Listen to these too, as they truly are.
Explanation
Having set out the parts of action, Krishna now classifies them by the gunas. He says knowledge (jñāna), action (karma) and the doer (kartā) each come in three types, depending on which of the three gunas, the strands of nature (sattva, rajas, tamas), is dominant. The phrase "teaching on the gunas" (guṇa-saṅkhyāna) is read by some as a reference to Sankhya philosophy and by others as simply a system of enumerating the gunas.